Chapter 10
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 10
After she left, a busy clattering sound came from outside the door for a long while. Then, suddenly—
CRASH!
I flinched.
It was the sound of something shattering. My body reacted automatically, shrinking in on itself. For a moment, the question ‘What happened?’ arose, and I strained my ears to listen to the sounds outside, but…
Clatter. Clatter.
All that followed was the sound of dishes clinking together. Did she just drop a bowl? The thought that it was nothing serious made the tension drain from my body.
Haaa…
A sigh escaped my lips. Dokyun relied on the dim light of the desk lamp to survey his surroundings. The room was still empty, without a single useful object to be found. The only place there might be something was…
‘Behind the bed.’
A little while ago, she had taken the bandages and disinfectant from there. The lamp, the bandages, the disinfectant. I suspected that wasn't all. At the very least, there had to be a few more things I could use.
I had to find a way to move. Just as I was thinking that…
Thump. Thump.
Footsteps drew closer. It seemed she was coming back.
Click.
The door opened. A single sliver of light from outside sliced through the dark room. A moment later, her voice reached my ears.
“D-did you wait long…?”
“No, not at all.”
My voice trembled. The moment I heard hers, it felt as if the pain in my wrists had wrapped itself in terror and was racing through my entire body. As if demanding obedience, as if telling me to preserve my life through submission, not defiance, the stinging pain crushed my reason.
“Sh-shall we… b-brush your teeth now…?”
“Yes, yes.”
I lifted my head to look at her. She was sitting on the edge of the bed just as before, a tray on her lap. On it was a large bowl filled with water, a small basin, and next to them, a towel, a cup, a toothbrush, and toothpaste. She had prepared everything meticulously.
As Dokyun watched, Eun-ah, still seated, reached for his body.
“Hk!”
A reflexive shudder. It was an unconscious reaction from a body that had experienced the crushing power of that grip to its very bones. Eun-ah didn't seem to pay it much mind, simply reaching over to untie the rope around my waist.
“Y-you can sit up now… We have to… brush your teeth…”
After untying the rope, she slipped her hands into my armpits and pulled, hoisting my upper body upright.
Nngh…
The sensation of her hands on my body was unsettling. A wave of anxiety washed over me. ‘What if her fingertips dig right into my armpits and tear a hole through me?’
“Nngh—oomph! Th-there… we go…!”
Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened by the time I was fully upright. As her hands left my body, the anxiety vanished as if it had never been there.
“Th-thank you.”
“Hehe…”
Had her way of speaking infected me? Every word that came out trembled, as if I were mimicking her. A faint sense of self-loathing washed over me. As Dokyun sank into gloom, Eun-ah, having finished her preparations, spoke.
“O-okay then… Say ahhh~”
She looked thoroughly pleased with herself, holding a toothbrush with paste on it and giving me orders. I didn't want to obey. The current situation, where I had to depend on her for even this, filled Dokyun with a thick, clinging despair.
“Ahhh.”
And yet, my body, having learned its lesson from the pain, faithfully followed her command, as if all that mattered was avoiding another injury.
Suddenly, a hollow laugh escaped Dokyun at the thought, ‘Isn't my body better at reading the situation than my mind is?’ Another wave of negativity surged. Not wanting to think anymore, Dokyun cleared his head and closed his eyes.
The sensation of something invading my mouth. With it came Eun-ah’s faintly trembling voice.
“Now… j-just stay still…”
Scrub. Scrub.
The pressure was incredibly light. The toothbrush began to move with the meticulous care of someone handling a precious work of art. As if doing her absolute best, she began to brush my teeth with painstaking diligence. Dokyun’s eyes slowly opened and turned toward Eun-ah.
Huu… Huu…
Her cheeks were flushed red, her breathing had grown quite ragged, and her gaze was fixed intently on my mouth. She seemed completely unaware that I had opened my eyes, her entire focus poured into the task at hand.
That dark, sinister ego of hers was sating itself again. Dokyun closed his eyes once more. He didn't want to face it. A sense of defeat consumed him. The feeling of the bristles moving around inside his mouth fueled his humiliation. The humiliation rose up and seemed to whisper to Dokyun, ‘Look how pathetic you are.’
After some time, the toothbrush had cleaned the bottom and top rows, and I had spit once. Finally, the front teeth were done. I rinsed my mouth with water and spit it into the basin. A voice laced with pride reached my ears.
“A-all done…!”
He felt a hand come to rest on his head.
“G-good job…! Honeybee-nim is a g-good boy…!”
“You worked hard.”
I opened my eyes. She was staring intently at my face. After watching me for a long moment, her hand moved toward my cheek.
My body reacted, flinching as a matter of course, but Eun-ah did nothing to stop it. I couldn't tell if she didn't know I was afraid of her, or if she wanted me to be.
While Dokyun was lost in thought, her hand reached his cheek, stroked it once, brushed past his lips, and then pulled away. A bit of white foam clung to her fingertip. It must have been from the toothpaste.
“Oh… you had something on you…”
Her trembling voice reached him. Dokyun watched her. The foam-tipped finger moved toward her mouth. A bright red tongue peeked out from between her thin lips, licked the foam away, and vanished again. Her eyes curved into beautiful half-moons, and her cheeks were burning red.
“Hehe…”
Her easy laugh struck my ears. Then, her lips moved, forming a sentence.
“O-okay, now… sh-shall we wash your face…?”
“Ah, yes…”
It wasn't over. Dokyun felt a sense of futility as he nodded. He had thought he would be spared any more misery for today, but things weren't going his way.
“O-okay… lean over here… p-put your head down…”
Dokyun obediently followed her words, lowering his head toward the bowl full of water and closing his eyes.
Splash.
Eun-ah’s hands touched the water, making a clear, soft sound.
“Now… b-be good…”
After her admonishment, Eun-ah scooped water with her hands and began patting it onto Dokyun’s face. He felt the wetness and the softness of her touch.
For a moment, Dokyun felt it was a blessing he had his eyes closed. If they were open, he would have had to see the self-harm scars on her wrists, and that would have filled him with a terror even greater than what he felt now.
After she had spread water over his face for some time, her hands pulled away for a moment. Soon, he felt her rubbing something onto his face. She was even using soap. The soap lather touched the cut on his cheek, creating a sharp, stinging pain.
Splash, splash.
She rinsed the soap from his face with more water. When the splashing sounds finally stopped, Eun-ah’s voice came.
“A-all done…”
Her hands left his face.
“J-just a second…”
There was a rustling sound, and then he felt the touch of cloth on his face. It seemed to be the towel she’d brought. Her hands were gentle as she pressed it against his skin, drying the water.
“Y-you can lift your head now…”
I lifted my head and opened my eyes. I saw Eun-ah, smiling brightly as she looked at me.
In that instant, Dokyun thought about how the emotions of two people in the same space could be such polar opposites. All these moments that had made him feel humiliation and despair had been, for her, moments of joy and happiness.
The realization made Dokyun’s stomach churn. He hated her. He hated her so much. He hated that she had snatched him up when he had been living a perfectly normal life just yesterday, thrown him in here, ruined his life, and yet she, the perpetrator, looked so damn happy.
But what he hated even more was his own fear, a fear so great that all his resentment and hatred combined could not suppress it. The terror, which had grown to swallow him whole in just a day, was now forcing a smile onto his lips. It was making his vocal cords tremble and his tongue move to form words.
“I’m causing you so much trouble. I’m sorry.”
“N-no, not at all…! I… I really like it…!”
Her flustered reply was sickening. In a little girl's game of house, the suffering of a toy doll doesn't matter in the slightest. The mouth of the girl lost in her game opened once more.
“I-I’ll go clean this up! Just a moment…”
“Yes, take your time.”
Eun-ah scrambled to her feet, gathered the things she’d brought, and scurried out of the room.
Thud.
The door closed, and the sliver of light from outside vanished. The room was once again lit only by the faint, dim glow of the desk lamp.
“Hah.”
A dry, hollow laugh escaped him. His body collapsed onto the bed as if it had given out. A wave of futility and helplessness washed over him.
“Fuck.”
The softly uttered curse drifted through the silent room. Wasn't there a way? Was there really no way to escape? In contrast to his limp body, his mind was racing, desperately searching for a method. His thoughts deepened, and deepened again.
Rustle.
He turned onto his side, curling up like he was sleeping on his side. Then he rolled over again, ending up face down on the bed.
“Huh?”
Feeling that something was off, a sound of confusion escaped Dokyun’s lips. His eyes flew open, and strength flooded his body. Dokyun moved, trying to identify the source of the strangeness he felt.
He pushed with his arms, and his upper body rose.
“…Wait a minute.”
He let go, and his body fell back down.
“No way.”
He pushed again, and it rose.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Dokyun’s gaze shot to his waist.
“Holy shit.”
The rope that had bound his waist was untied. Dokyun replayed the moments before she left the room. The way she had gotten flustered by his words and rushed out. She had left without tying him back up.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
His heart began to pound. Hope, which had been submerged at the bottom of despair, peeked its head above the surface. For the first time today, a genuine smile, full of sincerity, threatened to split his face from ear to ear. His breathing grew ragged.
Hoo-hah, hoo-hah.
Deep breaths. He had to calm down. Think calmly, rationally. This was the first chance he’d had in nearly a day. He had to think about what he could do right now.
‘An immediate escape is…’
Impossible.
His body was free, but his hands were still tied. He had no idea where he was, what was outside this door, or anything else.
‘Overpower her?’
A gamble.
If she came at him with a knife, it would be over instantly. It might be possible if he could rush her and take her down in one blow, but Dokyun had never learned how to subdue someone with only his feet while his hands were tied.
‘Fuck, I should’ve taken Taekwondo.’
For a moment, Dokyun remembered the Taekwondo master from his elementary school days, who used to stand in front of the school advertising that he’d give a 10,000-won gift certificate to anyone who signed up.
‘Why… why didn’t I go?!’
He squeezed his eyes shut.
‘If I had signed up back then, I would’ve learned self-defense and gotten a gift certificate!’
A wave of bitter regret washed over him. He cursed his past self, who had treated watching Card Monsters live as his life's calling.
After wallowing in regret for a moment, Dokyun shook his head, clearing his thoughts.
‘No, this is no time for that!’
He didn't have time for past regrets. He had to find something he could do right now, and there was one possibility Dokyun could bet on. His head turned.
‘Behind the bed.’
In the direction of the lamp. The place she took things from.
Gulp.
He swallowed hard. He had to check there. Something—some kind of clue—had to be there.
Dokyun's tense body moved toward the corner of the room that had, until now, been shrouded in mystery.